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Anyone with an interest in world affairs and military matters would have heard of his name

Colin Powell's stellar career, inspiring personal history and integrity have given him worldwide enormous respect and admiration.

His overcoming of the odds is a story we all can learn from.

Secretary Powell was a professional soldier for 35 years, during which time he held myriad command and staff positions and rose to the rank of 4-star General.

Powell was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Army, and was one of the 16,000 military advisors dispatched to South Vietnam by President Kennedy in 1962. In 1963

Powell was wounded by a booby trap while patrolling the Vietnamese border with Laos. He was awarded the Purple Heart, and later that year, the Bronze Star.

His second tour, as an Army Infantry officer, Powell was injured, this time in a helicopter crash from which he rescued two of his fellow soldiers. For his valor in Vietnam, he received two Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, a Soldier's Medal, and the Legion of Merit.

After studying at the Army War College, he was promoted to Brigadier General and commanded a Brigade of the 101st Airborne Division.

In the administration of President Carter, Powell was promoted to Major General at the Defense Department during the transition from the Carter to Reagan administrations.

Powell served as assistant commander and deputy commander of infantry divisions in Colorado and Kansas before returning to Washington to become senior military assistant to Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger, whom he assisted during the invasion of Grenada and the raid on Libya.

As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Bush, Powell became a national figure during the successful Desert Shield and Desert Storm operations which expelled the Iraqi army from Kuwait

General Powell went on to become the 12th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the Department of Defense.

In 2001, newly elected President George W. Bush appointed Colin L. Powell to be Secretary of State. Powell was the first African-American to hold this office.

As Secretary of State, he took a leading role in rallying America's allies and the United Nations to the war against terrorism, and to the enforcement of UN resolutions regarding the disarmament of Iraq.